DSORe POLL s429
Should Wisconsin liberalize bear-hunting regulations
to reduce the number of bears in the state?
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A woman in Siren, Wisconsin, was recently injured by a bear that had become habituated to humans by neighbors that had been feeding it. One day earlier, a large black bear that found itself in the City of La Crosse drew a large crowd. People followed it with cars and video cameras till it was cornered in a fenced area of Myrick Park. With nowhere to go, the bear climbed a tree.
The crowds ignored official requests to disperse, and the bear remained agitated. When it appeared it was going to leave the tree — in an escape attempt that likely would have necessitated running through a crowd or across a busy highway — it was killed by two police officers and a conservation warden.
Recent research suggests that Wisconsin’s bear population may be as much as three times earlier DNR estimates of 12,000-14,000. The DNR has increased the number of bear kill permits from 4,660 in 2008 to 7,310 for this hunting season, which begins Sept. 9. Last year, Wisconsin hunters registered 2,955 bears. The highest harvest on record was in 1998, when hunters registered 3,184 bears.
Is it time to increase the bear harvest even more by either boosting the number of kill permits issued or eliminating the permit system altogether and opening the season to anyone who wants to purchase a license?
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I don’t live in Wisconsin, but it would seem logical that wildlife management would allow for a greater harvest number of bears to reduce the populations; especially in higher impact areas. This is what wildlife management is about, after all. Unless hunters reduce the populations, bears will over-crowd each other and wild populations will begin to become regular unwelcome guest of human communities. A confrontation that is totally avoidable.